Elite StarCraft II pro gamers to compete at Full Sail for $10,000 prize this weekend

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July 25, 2013|By Shannon J. Owens, Orlando Sentinel

What do LeBron James, Tom Brady, Maria Sharapova and a professional gamer have in common? They are all athletes.

That's right, world. Not only can individuals pursue lucrative careers competing in video game competitions, but they are now considered professional athletes by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Earlier this month for the first time in history, pro gamers were awarded the right to petition for temporary work visas — known as P-1 visas — intended for individual athletes.

And Central Florida is already benefitting from the booming eSports industry and its athletes.

Eight professional StarCraft II players from across the world will compete in a three-day round robin tournament at Full Sail University starting today through Sunday, July 28. The winner will walk away $10,000 richer courtesy of the event sponsor, Red Bull. The tournament is free and open for the public to view at the Full Sail venue located at 141 University Park Dr. in Winter Park. The competition starts at 1 p.m. each day.

The pro gamers, who hail from South Korea, Germany, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the United States, will also play and critique games created by Full Sail students.

"Any feedback is great feedback, but getting feedback from people who do this for a living is even 10 times more important," said Liam Hislop, chairman of game development at Full Sail. "They're used to seeing different kinds of things and able to give some really good critiques as far as what motivates them to keep playing or play different."

The eSports tournament is just one small aspect of the weekend, titled the Red Bull Training Grounds. The company has been one of the chief supporters of eSports and is taking its investment in the sport to the next level by studying the pro gamers to determine what creates high level performance.

Former pro gamers like Sean Plott consider Red Bull's research a groundbreaking move for the industry.

"This is unbelievably exciting because it shows a big step forward for the entire industry . . . now all the sudden Red Bull wants to step in and ask questions like, `What is the training regime?' `What should the diet of a pro gamer be for him to have maximum focus? What should be the amount of time he plays versus rest? What should be the stretches that he does to make sure his hands are limber enough to play properly?'" said Plott, who will serve as a commentator at the tournament. "All these sorts of questions never really got the chance to be answered properly because the eSports industry was small and there was not as much money in it."

Plott said the average amount of training time for a pro gamer can range from eight to 14 hours a day, six times a week.

Why so long? Moves must be instinctual when you consider games like StarCraft command 300 unique keyboard and mouse button presses per minute.

"You can think of being a professional gamer as a mix between thinking about strategy like a chess grand master and having to have the finger dexterity like a pianist," Plott said.

If you have community sporting events of interest that you'd like featured in the Weekend Insider, please contact Shannon J. Owens at sjowens@tribune.com.